Extra Topics (Joe’s Blog Site)

If you forgot your Super Administrator password for your Joomla/Mambo, you can never recover your password because the passwords are hashed using MD5 algorithm. In other words, the passwords are encrypted.

However you can reset the value in the password field in the database. Set the password to a known value and then you may log-in using that new password. You can try to paste the following hash code to the password field. The password is ‘secret‘:

5ebe2294ecd0e0f08eab7690d2a6ee69

But to do this, you would have to find the field entry in the database. Some people have difficulty in locating the table or the database. That’s why I created a simple PHP script. All you have to do is to run the script from your server and it would allow you to specify your own password then it will automatically reset the password for you. You’ll have no hustle on finding the field from your database!

The script's interface to reset Joomla/Mambo admin password

How to use the script to reset your Joomla/Mambo password:

1. Download and unzip the package to your computer (adminreset.zip)
2. Upload the file adminreset.php into your server’s main folder where your Joomla/Mambo is installed.
3. Execute the script like

   http://yourserver.com/adminreset.php

4. Follow the simple instruction in the script.
5. After using the script, delete it from your server as other people might use it.

Did I emphasize that this script works for both Joomla 1.0.x and 1.5.x? Well it does…

I recently tried to install VirtueMart 1.1.2 complete package to a Joomla 1.0.15 website. I unpacked the files and tried to install the 2MB (approx.) component, then bang! I got this error “Failed to move uploaded file to /media directory”. I tried changing the /media folder’s permission to 777 but it didn’t work.

So I searched the internet for other solutions. They said we could try changing the maximum upload size parameter in PHP but it didn’t work for them so I didn’t try it.

In the end, I realized that I should have checked the VirtueMart manual in the first place. I found an alternative installation procedure in the manual, tried it, and presto, it worked!

In the manual under section 2.2.4 Automatic Installation, it says:

Alternative: You can unpack the contents of ‘com_virtuemart_1.1.x.zip‘ and upload those files to a directory in your Joomla! site (e.g /media or /tmp) using an FTP client. After you’ve done that, specify the directory on the server from where you want to install the files and click ‘Install‘.

Now this part is usually overlooked. And the last sencence in the procedure is not clearly explained. So check out the procedure below on how to do these.

1. Unpack the contents of ‘com_virtuemat_1.1.x.zip’
2. Upload the files to /media or /tmp folder using your FTP client.
3. At your Administrator-> Installers->Components page, specify the direct location of the /media or /tmp folder (depends on where you uploaded) in the “Install directory:” field, as shown in the graphic below. The <user> keyword is the user account. A complete path is already specified there, you’d just have to edit the last part.
4. Click Install and you’re finished.

VirtueMart installation in Joomla after uploading unpacked files to /media folder

Situation

At the Joomla/Mambo administration backend, when you click Insert Image on the content editor, a blank window appears. This has something to do with the javascript in relation with the way you typed your URL and the Live Site setting on you Global Configuration. You have to add or remove the ‘www.’ prefix on your address depending on the setting on your Live Site setting on you Global Configuration at the administration backend.

Temporary and inefficient work-around

Go to your administration backend and go to Site|Global Configuration then Server tab and check your Live Site configuration. If your Live Site settting is like:

http://extratopics.com (no ‘www.’ prefix)

then you also have to remove the ‘www’ prefix when you go to the administration page like:

http://extratopics.com/administrator/ (also has no ‘www.’ prefix)

for the Insert Image to work properly.

But if you do have a ‘www.’ prefix on your Live Site setting then you should also add the prefix on the admin address so you could insert images properly.

What others suggest

Most users suggest that you add a ‘www.’ prefix on your Live Site setting. This is NOT a good idea because you’re simply switching the problem to the other. Meaning, adding a ‘www.’ prefix to the live site setting would also require you to add a prefix everytime and vise versa.

How about the front end?

We have been focusing on the backend and the Insert Image issue. But you must remember that the Live Site setting affects your Joomla/Mambo site globally, that is, incuding the front end. Adding a ‘www.’ prefix on the Live Site setting would also require all your visitors to add a ‘www.’ prefix when they type your address. If they don’t add a prefix, some of your javascript based modules and components might not work properly. You forgot about this didn’t you? Even I myself have neglected this.

Now also if you remove the prefix on the Live Site settings, all visitors must also remove the prefix for some javascripts to work. Now we can’t tell all visitors what to type on the address can we?

Proper solution to all of these

Open the configuration.php file found in your Joomla/Mambo installation root folder and find:

$mosConfig_live_site = ‘http://yourdomain.com’; (with or without ‘www.’)

Replace with:

$mosConfig_live_site = ‘http://’ . $_SERVER["SERVER_NAME"];

That’s it! This is a very simple fix and is very flexible. The Live Site setting will automatically change depending on what the admin or visitor type on the address bar without worrying whether they use a ‘www.’ prefix or not at the front end or at the back end.